A New World of Creativity: Exploring the Features of the iPhone 13 Pro

One of the things that's new here is the macro capabilities, which means the ability to get really close to your subject. This has definitely opened up a whole new world of creativity. I'm seeing things details that I just never would experience without the macro on this camera. So, I stuck this up next to a caterpillar for instance and I saw things that my naked eye just wouldn't pick up on. I felt like it was actually pretty jaw-dropping to see this little critter in so much detail. The macro mode is actually going to end up being a bigger deal than even I realize when I saw the announcement because now that I have it, I'm out there using it in unexpected ways. This is actually the first macro shot that I ever took on the 13 Pro and it just blew me away with how nice and detailed it looked.

However, it's kind of weird because it automatically activates itself when you get within a certain distance of your subject and it's a little bit finicky sometimes. It works really well other times, but I'm kind of having to move my camera around a lot so that I can activate macro to actually do something with it. So, that could use a little bit of improvement.

Cinematic Mode: A New Way to Capture Videos

Apple's been pushing cinematic mode this year, and I just want to point out that it's not something that's exclusive to the Pros. The regular iPhone 13s can handle cinematic mode as well. I think that tells you a lot about Apple's capabilities.

So, here are some real-life examples of cinematic mode in action. Just a quick test of the iPhone 13 Pro's cinematic mode, right here in my office. You can see I'm not using any special lighting, and I don't have an external microphone. I just want to see what this looks like and if we're impressed.

The footage is... interesting. It's fun, but it's also a bit of a mixed bag. I don't think I'd use cinematic mode for professional purposes right now, although there are some great examples out there of people pushing the boundaries of what's possible with this feature. If you want to see what someone can do when they're trying their hardest to make it look actually cinematic, I highly recommend checking out a short film called "Float".

Profiles: A New Way to Customize Your Photos

Another new feature here is profiles. You can kind of set this default look for the photos that you take. If you tend to like warmer or cooler or more vibrant or contrasty photos, you can just dial that in once and it'll become your default setting. The first time you launch your camera on your new phone, Apple's gonna ask you and then it's gonna glue that look that you select onto your photos automatically for you.

So, it's not something you have to do photo by photo. I think this is kind of cool because normally Apple just leaves your photos alone. They kind of make it more natural, but here they're letting you have a little bit more choice right out of the gate. Instead of having to take extra time to edit stuff to get it how you like it later.

Storage, Processor, and Connectivity: What You Need to Know

For those interested in the nitty-gritty details, I recommend checking out my iPhone 13 buying guide because I broke down all that stuff there in detail. To me, iPhones are tools that get a lot done with them, and if I'm looking at a Pro iPhone then I'm looking at something that I consider a Pro tool.

That's it for now. If you want to continue the conversation with me, get yourself subscribed to the podcast because I'm sure to be talking about more iPhone 13 and Pro stuff there along with other Apple stuff.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's chris welcome to my iphone 13 pros review that's right i'm going to be checking out the 13 pro and the 13 pro max and if you thought that these pros could not surprise you well think again for instance it's all about perspective on the back you see three cameras but with the new macro mode you actually end up getting four effectively also the very second that i took the 13 pros out of the box i noticed the extra weight now i already put together a super in-depth buyer's guide for the whole iphone 13 lineup from the 13 mini all the way to the pro max so if you're not sure which iphone 13 is right for you i'll link it up down in the description so you can check that out but in this review i really want to focus on three main upgrades number one the most wanted upgrade number two the most practical upgrade and number three the upgrade that's gonna make the biggest difference now the pro models that i've got here include the 13 pro in gold and also the 13 pro max and the highly sought after sierra blue now funnily enough the smaller pro here is actually the one with the massive one terabyte storage upgrade while the larger version still has a respectable 512 gigs but i just want to mention you probably heard people say and i'm among them that this feels like an s update year and that i feel like really is largely true but it's a big s i'll just say that now other than a slightly smaller notch which apple didn't really take advantage of in any significant way the 13 pros don't really look much different than previous iphone models at least other than the bigger camera bumps and the bigger lenses that said the pro experience is actually quite different if you know where to look alright let's start by talking about what has to be the most wanted feature this year on the pros the 120 hertz pro motion display now just look at this comparison between last year's 12 pro max and this year's 13 pro max this footage was shot at 120 frames per second and you can clearly see the difference that a faster refresh rate makes i really don't feel like for the average user it's a must-have but for a pro phone at the top end of the iphone spectrum i do feel like it's high time for this feature to have arrived and i'm glad it's an option and i'll tell you why because what something like 95 of the things that we do on a phone involves scrolling and if that's the case and this is the pro model it might as well be the best possible experience and this year it really is and that's because the 120 hertz is adaptable so it doesn't stay 120 hertz all the time there are times when it drops down to 10. so if you just have static text on the screen or if you have a 30fps video playing or if you're playing a game then this display is going to adapt automatically to make sure that you're squeezing the most battery life out of your device as you possibly can which is really nice now in use i feel like if i try to notice it then i notice it otherwise i'm not really thinking about it instead i'm just thinking about what that text actually says i'm getting lost in the content which is the whole point of your phone right but when i do take the time to notice it's cool because i feel like my finger is actually moving the stuff on the screen because there's no delay there's no lag and one last thing i want to say about the screen before we move on is that it gets noticeably brighter especially outside now admittedly this isn't something that everybody's gonna notice but if you had a new pro versus an old pro side by side outdoors cranked all the way up you can notice a difference all right let's talk about what i consider to be the most practical upgrade this year and that would be the extended battery life i do hear a lot of people talking about not having battery anxiety at the end of the day with these new pros which you know that's an interesting way of putting it i don't really get anxiety about the battery it just gets annoying when i run out of battery and i don't have that here and on top of that for everybody that was complaining about having to use an external battery pack if you get one of these pros you just basically don't have to think about it if you do a lot of gaming on your iphone you're absolutely gonna love the extra battery life here because games really drain your battery also if you're gonna be a heavy user of the new camera features especially when it comes to video and you're gonna have this thing on for a long time doing some shooting then this extra battery life is actually gonna be essential all right so massively better battery life that's practical 120 hertz refresh rate that was the most wanted upgrade but i think the cameras are where the biggest updates year over year have actually taken place let me dig into that thought just a little bit more so every year iphones get camera updates some years it's bigger than others this year it's a particularly large camera update an impressive camera update if you know where to look let me just say though i'm personally throwing a party in my head because the 13 pro max and the regular 13 pro have the same camera setups this year so this year you don't have to upgrade to the larger 13 pro to enjoy the best camera that apple can give you now personally i'm really excited about that as somebody who came from using the 12 pro max last year because i wanted that bigger sensor so far i am loving having a smaller footprint not just in a pocket because sometimes that's a little bit bulky but just in hand as well because i am somebody who uses this camera for professional purposes and i love bringing the smallest possible portable rig with me that i can get away with and still get really great looking video so that actually matters to me and personally this 13 pro here is my dream iphone now check this out here's the 13 pro max next to the 12 pro max and you can just see visually that the camera bump is bigger this year and the actual camera lenses are bigger this year and that's not all that's bigger internally the sensors are bigger the pixels are just bigger which all equates to more light being let into these lenses and the more light you have the less noise you have and the sharper and clearer your photos and videos are going to be now caveat time is somebody that had not just a pro last year but just a regular iphone really gonna notice the difference in photos and videos when they're side by side the average person probably won't but the second you start digging around in the details when you zoom in and you actually look for that sharpness for that clarity you can absolutely notice it needless to say i haven't seen any serious reviewers saying that this isn't the best camera system that you can get on a phone not just an iphone on a phone now when i started playing around with the cameras here this year and taking some test photos there were several times when a photo would stop me from scrolling and i would have to sit there and admire it because of how good it looked now i'm not going overboard i'm not saying that it would look better than a mirrorless camera or dslr but for photos taken on a phone this can literally produce stop you in your tracks photos now one of the things that's new here is the macro capabilities which means the ability to get really close to your subject which has definitely opened up a whole new world of creativity i'm seeing things details that i just never would experience without the macro on this camera so i stuck this up next to a caterpillar for instance and i saw things that my naked eye just wouldn't pick up on and i felt like it was actually pretty jaw-dropping to see this little critter in so much detail i think the macro mode is actually going to end up being a bigger deal than even i realize when i saw the announcement because now that i have it i'm out there using it in unexpected ways and this is actually the first macro shot that i ever took on the 13 pro and it just blew me away with how nice and detailed it looked it's kind of weird though because it automatically activates itself when you get within a certain distance of your subject and it's a little bit finicky sometimes it works really well other times i'm kind of having to move my camera around a lot so that i can activate macro to actually do something with it so that could use a little bit of improvement let me talk about cinematic mode that's something that apple's been pushing here this year and i just want to point out that it's not something that's exclusive to the pros the regular iphone 13s can handle cinematic mode and i think that tells you a lot here's some real life examples of cinematic mode just in my office hey it's chris this is just a real test of the iphone 13 pro's cinematic mode i'm just here in my office you can see i don't have any special lighting going on i'm not using an external microphone i just want to see what this looks like and i want to show you what it looks like what it sounds like and if are we impressed do we think it needs to be improved i'm guessing it's a little bit of both but anyways this is what it looks like now cinematic mode is new i will say it's fun i don't see this being used by professional people really this year although i did see a short film called float which i highly recommend checking out if you really want to see what someone can do when they're trying their hardest to make this look actually cinematic so let's just say it's something that's going to improve over time that's just kind of fun to use right now another thing that's new here this year is profiles you can kind of set this default look for the photos that you take so if you tend to like warmer or cooler or more vibrant or contrasty photos you can just dial that in once actually the first time that you launch your camera on your new phone apple's gonna ask you and then it's gonna glue that look that you select onto your photos automatically for you so it's not something you have to do photo by photo i think this is kind of cool because normally apple just leaves your photos alone they kind of make it more natural but here probably in order to compete with what samsung and google are offering they're letting you have a little bit more choice right out of the gate instead of having to take extra time to edit stuff to get it how you like it later and i should point out apple doesn't really consider these filters per se because it's not a dumb filter just being applied across the board to every object in the scene instead the ai is able to pick out okay that's a face those are clouds that's some grass and keep those looking a certain way you know keep your skin tones looking good for instance i mean it's kind of cool it's not a groundbreaking feature i don't feel like but i like that vibrant look a little bit so that's what i'm using but for more on the storage on the processor on the connectivity i would recommend checking out my iphone 13 buying guide because i broke down all of that stuff there in detail like i've said before to me iphones are tools i get a lot done with them and if i'm looking at a pro iphone then i'm looking at something that i consider a pro tool and i really couldn't be happier with what the pros offer this year especially the smaller pro with its just amazing camera system i hope you found the information and the demos and the comparisons in this review useful if you want to continue the conversation with me get yourself subscribed to the podcast because i'm sure to be talking about more iphone 13 and pro stuff there along with other apple stuff you know i just got the new ipads i'm talking about it all get yourself subscribed to the podcast and i'll look forward to catching up in the next video laterhey it's chris welcome to my iphone 13 pros review that's right i'm going to be checking out the 13 pro and the 13 pro max and if you thought that these pros could not surprise you well think again for instance it's all about perspective on the back you see three cameras but with the new macro mode you actually end up getting four effectively also the very second that i took the 13 pros out of the box i noticed the extra weight now i already put together a super in-depth buyer's guide for the whole iphone 13 lineup from the 13 mini all the way to the pro max so if you're not sure which iphone 13 is right for you i'll link it up down in the description so you can check that out but in this review i really want to focus on three main upgrades number one the most wanted upgrade number two the most practical upgrade and number three the upgrade that's gonna make the biggest difference now the pro models that i've got here include the 13 pro in gold and also the 13 pro max and the highly sought after sierra blue now funnily enough the smaller pro here is actually the one with the massive one terabyte storage upgrade while the larger version still has a respectable 512 gigs but i just want to mention you probably heard people say and i'm among them that this feels like an s update year and that i feel like really is largely true but it's a big s i'll just say that now other than a slightly smaller notch which apple didn't really take advantage of in any significant way the 13 pros don't really look much different than previous iphone models at least other than the bigger camera bumps and the bigger lenses that said the pro experience is actually quite different if you know where to look alright let's start by talking about what has to be the most wanted feature this year on the pros the 120 hertz pro motion display now just look at this comparison between last year's 12 pro max and this year's 13 pro max this footage was shot at 120 frames per second and you can clearly see the difference that a faster refresh rate makes i really don't feel like for the average user it's a must-have but for a pro phone at the top end of the iphone spectrum i do feel like it's high time for this feature to have arrived and i'm glad it's an option and i'll tell you why because what something like 95 of the things that we do on a phone involves scrolling and if that's the case and this is the pro model it might as well be the best possible experience and this year it really is and that's because the 120 hertz is adaptable so it doesn't stay 120 hertz all the time there are times when it drops down to 10. so if you just have static text on the screen or if you have a 30fps video playing or if you're playing a game then this display is going to adapt automatically to make sure that you're squeezing the most battery life out of your device as you possibly can which is really nice now in use i feel like if i try to notice it then i notice it otherwise i'm not really thinking about it instead i'm just thinking about what that text actually says i'm getting lost in the content which is the whole point of your phone right but when i do take the time to notice it's cool because i feel like my finger is actually moving the stuff on the screen because there's no delay there's no lag and one last thing i want to say about the screen before we move on is that it gets noticeably brighter especially outside now admittedly this isn't something that everybody's gonna notice but if you had a new pro versus an old pro side by side outdoors cranked all the way up you can notice a difference all right let's talk about what i consider to be the most practical upgrade this year and that would be the extended battery life i do hear a lot of people talking about not having battery anxiety at the end of the day with these new pros which you know that's an interesting way of putting it i don't really get anxiety about the battery it just gets annoying when i run out of battery and i don't have that here and on top of that for everybody that was complaining about having to use an external battery pack if you get one of these pros you just basically don't have to think about it if you do a lot of gaming on your iphone you're absolutely gonna love the extra battery life here because games really drain your battery also if you're gonna be a heavy user of the new camera features especially when it comes to video and you're gonna have this thing on for a long time doing some shooting then this extra battery life is actually gonna be essential all right so massively better battery life that's practical 120 hertz refresh rate that was the most wanted upgrade but i think the cameras are where the biggest updates year over year have actually taken place let me dig into that thought just a little bit more so every year iphones get camera updates some years it's bigger than others this year it's a particularly large camera update an impressive camera update if you know where to look let me just say though i'm personally throwing a party in my head because the 13 pro max and the regular 13 pro have the same camera setups this year so this year you don't have to upgrade to the larger 13 pro to enjoy the best camera that apple can give you now personally i'm really excited about that as somebody who came from using the 12 pro max last year because i wanted that bigger sensor so far i am loving having a smaller footprint not just in a pocket because sometimes that's a little bit bulky but just in hand as well because i am somebody who uses this camera for professional purposes and i love bringing the smallest possible portable rig with me that i can get away with and still get really great looking video so that actually matters to me and personally this 13 pro here is my dream iphone now check this out here's the 13 pro max next to the 12 pro max and you can just see visually that the camera bump is bigger this year and the actual camera lenses are bigger this year and that's not all that's bigger internally the sensors are bigger the pixels are just bigger which all equates to more light being let into these lenses and the more light you have the less noise you have and the sharper and clearer your photos and videos are going to be now caveat time is somebody that had not just a pro last year but just a regular iphone really gonna notice the difference in photos and videos when they're side by side the average person probably won't but the second you start digging around in the details when you zoom in and you actually look for that sharpness for that clarity you can absolutely notice it needless to say i haven't seen any serious reviewers saying that this isn't the best camera system that you can get on a phone not just an iphone on a phone now when i started playing around with the cameras here this year and taking some test photos there were several times when a photo would stop me from scrolling and i would have to sit there and admire it because of how good it looked now i'm not going overboard i'm not saying that it would look better than a mirrorless camera or dslr but for photos taken on a phone this can literally produce stop you in your tracks photos now one of the things that's new here is the macro capabilities which means the ability to get really close to your subject which has definitely opened up a whole new world of creativity i'm seeing things details that i just never would experience without the macro on this camera so i stuck this up next to a caterpillar for instance and i saw things that my naked eye just wouldn't pick up on and i felt like it was actually pretty jaw-dropping to see this little critter in so much detail i think the macro mode is actually going to end up being a bigger deal than even i realize when i saw the announcement because now that i have it i'm out there using it in unexpected ways and this is actually the first macro shot that i ever took on the 13 pro and it just blew me away with how nice and detailed it looked it's kind of weird though because it automatically activates itself when you get within a certain distance of your subject and it's a little bit finicky sometimes it works really well other times i'm kind of having to move my camera around a lot so that i can activate macro to actually do something with it so that could use a little bit of improvement let me talk about cinematic mode that's something that apple's been pushing here this year and i just want to point out that it's not something that's exclusive to the pros the regular iphone 13s can handle cinematic mode and i think that tells you a lot here's some real life examples of cinematic mode just in my office hey it's chris this is just a real test of the iphone 13 pro's cinematic mode i'm just here in my office you can see i don't have any special lighting going on i'm not using an external microphone i just want to see what this looks like and i want to show you what it looks like what it sounds like and if are we impressed do we think it needs to be improved i'm guessing it's a little bit of both but anyways this is what it looks like now cinematic mode is new i will say it's fun i don't see this being used by professional people really this year although i did see a short film called float which i highly recommend checking out if you really want to see what someone can do when they're trying their hardest to make this look actually cinematic so let's just say it's something that's going to improve over time that's just kind of fun to use right now another thing that's new here this year is profiles you can kind of set this default look for the photos that you take so if you tend to like warmer or cooler or more vibrant or contrasty photos you can just dial that in once actually the first time that you launch your camera on your new phone apple's gonna ask you and then it's gonna glue that look that you select onto your photos automatically for you so it's not something you have to do photo by photo i think this is kind of cool because normally apple just leaves your photos alone they kind of make it more natural but here probably in order to compete with what samsung and google are offering they're letting you have a little bit more choice right out of the gate instead of having to take extra time to edit stuff to get it how you like it later and i should point out apple doesn't really consider these filters per se because it's not a dumb filter just being applied across the board to every object in the scene instead the ai is able to pick out okay that's a face those are clouds that's some grass and keep those looking a certain way you know keep your skin tones looking good for instance i mean it's kind of cool it's not a groundbreaking feature i don't feel like but i like that vibrant look a little bit so that's what i'm using but for more on the storage on the processor on the connectivity i would recommend checking out my iphone 13 buying guide because i broke down all of that stuff there in detail like i've said before to me iphones are tools i get a lot done with them and if i'm looking at a pro iphone then i'm looking at something that i consider a pro tool and i really couldn't be happier with what the pros offer this year especially the smaller pro with its just amazing camera system i hope you found the information and the demos and the comparisons in this review useful if you want to continue the conversation with me get yourself subscribed to the podcast because i'm sure to be talking about more iphone 13 and pro stuff there along with other apple stuff you know i just got the new ipads i'm talking about it all get yourself subscribed to the podcast and i'll look forward to catching up in the next video later\n"